Говорите правильно по-английски - Поуви Дж.
Скачать (прямая ссылка):
8. Workers from the Massey Ferguson plant in Kil-
marnock (Scotland) will lobby MPs on November 30 in their fight against the closure of the plant. (Massey Ferguson is a large company which makes tractors.)
This use of plant is particularly common in the mass media (the above examples are taken from newspapers) but it is creeping into conversation, too. While He works at a plant sounds rather strange, He works at the Perkins plant (in Peterborough) or He's been transferred to the Bradford plant sounds quite natural. Another example, taken from a conversation about an engineer working for a large chemical firm, is He's been made manager of the plant where he works.
Note that plant in such cases refers only to the place where goods are produced and not to the whole company. That is why it is spelt with a small letter in the above examples.
Although plant tends to be associated with heavy industry rather than light, there seems to be no clear-cut distinction in usage. Plant is not used in contrast to factory, but rather as an alternative in some cases. We do not speak of factories and plants, since the two words are synonyms in a general context; we simply say factories (at least in British English), as in exampes 1-4 above.
47 In combination with the name of a particular product, either factory, plant or works may be used, as illustrated below. The choice depends partly on the type of industry and partly on traditional usage. Factory has the widest application, plant is confined mainly to heavy industry (although this may be changing) and works is used nowadays only in certain traditional combinations. Here are some examples:
factory
car factory
works
car works
chemical works steel works glass works brick works printing works water works gas works
plant
car plant automobile plant
(AmE) chemical plant steel plant
chemical factory steel factory furniture factory clothing factory shoe factory toy factory china factory watch and clock
factory sweet factory chocolate factory
If in doubt, it is on the whole best to use factory, at least in British English.
All three words are also used to denote the place where the goods are produced (or processing is carried out) in contrast to the offices, the administration. In British English factory and works are the most usual in this situation.
eg 9. The sales manager rang the factory/works to find out whether the goods were ready.
10. That's the responsibility of the works manager. (the person in charge of production, not planning or sales, for example)
Mill is traditionally used in connection with certain industries, mainly cotton and paper:
a cotton/paper mill
These industries, particularly cotton, were formerly located chiefly in the north-west of England (Yorkshire and Lancashire) and there mill was also used as a general term corresponding to Standard English factory.
eg 11. He works in a mill.
12. She's a mill-worker !mill-hand.
48 However, this use has decreased sharply in recent years.
Some industries have specific words used only with reference to a particular product or process. The most common are:
— shipyard — builds ships
— oil refinery — refines crude oil
— bakery — makes bread, cakes, etc.
— dairy — bottles (and often delivers, too) milk and cream, makes butter, cheese, etc.
— brewery — makes beer
— distillery — makes spirits (whisky, brandy, gin, etc.)
Note also that the word plant has another meaning in addition to the one given above. It can also denote machinery, equipment, etc. used in industrial processes. Hornby gives the following examples:
The farm has its own lighting plant, eg a generator for
producing electric current. We get our tractors and bulldozers from a plant-hire firm.
Other examples are:
13. The company has recently bought some expensive new plant.
14. The cooling plant has broken down and production has stopped.
The following traffic sign can be seen in England:
CAUTION! HEAVY PLANT CROSSING
As one can see from these examples, plant in this sense can be used either countably, to denote a particular piece of equipment, or uncountably, in a collective sense.
In American English plant is used in a wider sense than any of those given so far. Besides the meaning "factory or workshop for the manufacture of a particular product", Webster gives the following:
— the land, building, machinery, apparatus and fixtures employed in carrying on a trade or industrial business;
— the total facilities available for production or service;
— the buildings and other physical equipment of an institution.
The last sense, which is not confined to industry, can be illustrated by the following quotation from an American
49 book on education: "The latter (= the research-orientated universities. — JP) should be characterized by the superior strength and quality of its library, its laboratories, its plant, its faculty (= academic staff. — JP)"
